he fu
di Papa Alessandro.... Avvisi di Roma. State archives of Modena.

CHAPTER X

EFFECTS OF THE WAR--THE ROMAN INFANTE

The war about Ferrara, thanks to Alfonso's skill and the determined
resistance of the State, had ended. Julius II had seized Modena and
Reggio, which was a great loss to the State of Ferrara, and consequently
the history of that country for many years hence is taken up with her
efforts to regain these cities. Fortunately for Alfonso, Julius II died
in February, 1513, and Leo X ascended the papal throne. Hitherto he had
maintained friendly relations with the princes of Urbino and Ferrara,
who continued to look for only amicable treatment from him; but both
houses were destined to be bitterly deceived by the faithless Medici,
who deceived all the world. Alfonso hastened to attend Leo's coronation
in Rome, and, believing a complete reconciliation with the Holy See
would soon be effected, he returned to Ferrara.

There Lucretia had won universal esteem and affection; she had become
the mother of the people. She lent a ready ear to the suffering and
helped all who were in need. Famine, high prices, and depletion of the
treasury were the consequences of the war; Lucretia had even pawned her
jewels. She put aside, as Jovius says, "the pomps and vanities of the
world to which she had been accustomed from childhood, and gave herself
up to pious works, and founded convents and hospitals. This was due as
much to her own nature as it was to her past life and the fate she
had suffered. Most women who have lived much and loved much finally
become fanatics; bigotry is often only the last form which feminine
vanity assumes. The recollection of a world of vice, and of crimes
committed by her nearest kinsmen, and also of her own sins, must have
constantly disturbed Lucretia's conscience. Other women who, like her,
were among the chief characters in the history of the Borgias developed
precisely the same frame of mind and experienced a similar need of
religious consolation. Caesar's widow ended her life in a convent;
Gandia's did the same; Alexander's mistress became a fanatic; and if we
had any record of the adulteress Giulia Farnese we should certainly find
that she passed the closing years of her life either as a saint in a
convent or engaged in pious works."

[Illustration: LEO X.

From an engraving published in 1580.]

The year 1513, following the war in Ferarra, marked a decided change in
Lucreti